ORWELLIAN COMICS "THE REPLACEMENTS" Page 19

ORWELLIAN COMICS "WELCOME TO 2041"

ORWELLIAN STORIES In George Orwell's novel 1984 he
discusses a government sanctioned perversion of language called
“newspeak”. In the book it involves the reduction of the English
vocabulary as means to control human emotion and activities. For
example negative words are removed in order to prevent negative
attitudes. In addition to limiting the vocabulary books have also
been outlawed and information is subject to constant change thereby
suffocating intelligence and regulating the public with fear and
confusion. While the story in the book is often considered prophetic
or science fiction it was actually intent on describing London at the
time of it's publication (1948) yet when reading the book, with all
it's “futuristic” dystopian media, video screens and techniques
of mass hypnosis, one can't help but draw comparisons to the world of
today. However as a friend of mine once mentioned our current society
does in fact “make 1984 look like ancient history”.

In the novel everyone is under constant
surveillance by way of camera's, spies and video screens periodically
blasting subliminal messages in their homes. In today's current
society, year 2041, we no longer need to invade the public's life so
aggressively as everyone carries around a small tracking device.
These devices record the whereabouts, conversations and the
information off the user enabling both a strict regiment of control
and a false sense of freedom among the public. Not only do the proles
willingly carry these devices but they also pay large amounts of
money for them and pride the quality of the tracking unit as a
signifier of status.

Asides from collection personal
information, the devices have also extended the notion of “newspeak”
to unimagined levels. First of all we have removed the use of vowels.
This reduction allows for multiple definitions of any single
abbreviation leading towards simplified thought patterns and mostimportantly the inability for
generations to exchange information. Secondly unlike our predecessors
we permit excessive access to sexual material and encourage the use
of negative vocabularies. These inclusions have proven extremely
powerful in both the art of distraction and ostracizing alternative
ideologies.

As for the manipulation of information
and mass media, once again we have almost reached perfection. While
we continue to monopolize the mainstream news in a similar fashion as
those in the novel, we have handed over a great portion of the
disinformation to the public itself. Using there devices they are
permitted to create there own news which has become a world wide
phenomenon. They are constantly writing and re-writing there own
propaganda and have even developed a fluctuating encyclopedia.
Thanks to modern technologies we no longer have to employ as many
workers or techniques as the general public is taking care of the
disinformation at absolutely no cost. The constantly changing
information is continually cancelling itself out to the extent that
even the truth is considered disreputable.